Hegira
Americannoun
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Islam. a variant spelling of Hijra.
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(lowercase) Also hejira any flight or journey to a more desirable or congenial place.
noun
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the departure of Mohammed from Mecca to Medina in 622 ad ; the starting point of the Muslim era
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the Muslim era itself See also AH
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(often not capital) an emigration escape or flight
Etymology
Origin of Hegira
First recorded in 1590–1600; from Medieval Latin, from Arabic hijrah “emigration, flight, departure,” a derivative of the verb hajara “he departed”
Explanation
A hegira is an arduous journey taken by people who are fleeing a dangerous situation. After what is often a difficult hegira, refugees then have to go through the long process of gaining asylum in a new country. The word hegira is derived from the Arabic hajara, "to depart." The original hegira, or hijra, was the Islamic founder Muhammad's flight from Mecca to Medina in 622. He and his followers traveled to escape religious persecution, and the date of the voyage marks the start of the Islamic calendar. The word can also be used for less fraught journeys: "It was such a hegira getting to the beach, with all that summer traffic!"
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
